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WALTER R. STEINER 
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LECTURE AND SKETCHES 



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LIFE ON THE 



SANDWICH ISLANDS 



AND 



Hawaiian Travel ^ Scenery 

MAJOR C. C. BENNETT 

AUTHOR OF 

"HONOLULU DIRECTORY," "SKETCHES OF 
HAWAIIAN HISTORY" 

AivSo late Editor And Proprietor of i( Bennett's Own," 

a Weekly Paper Published at Honolulu, 

Hawaiian Islands 

LECTURE DELIVERED BEFORE ST. MARY'S COLLEGE 

In which he gives his Experience of Sixteen Years 

Residence and Studies on the Hawaiian 

or Sandwich Islands 

I 

san francisco 

The Bancroft Company, Publishers 

1893 



3* 



IMS. WAITER H* STESIiER 



fie teeeture 



f| HE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS (falsely called Sand- 
wich), are situated in North Latitude, between 
the parallels of nineteen and twenty-one degrees, 
and West Longitude, one hundred and fifty-six. 
^^ They are 2,200 miles from San Francisco and 
being in the ocean highway between the northwest coast 
of North America and the English colonies of New 
Zealand and Australia and the rich countries of Asia, 
they are of great and growing importance to the interest 
of commerce. Their number is eight. Their total area is 
7,060 square miles. Their names are Hawaii, Maui, 
Molokai, Lanai, Oahu, Kaui, Niihau and Kahoolaui. 

They were originally peopled by one of the most 
peculiar races that ever inhabited the earth, in fact their 
like is not on the earth. They believe that they were 
created on the Islands, the name of their creator was 
Wakea, but as our bible gives no account of Wakea, we 
are compelled to go back to former ages. All of the 
northern part of the American Continent bears unmis- 
takable signs of a pre-historic civilized race who cut the 
mighty roadways through the mountains of Arizona; 
some of these roadways are a hundred miles in length 
and in places a mile in depth. Who built the immense 
canals that water the plains and valleys west of the 
River Gilla? Who built the houses that were found in 
the clefts bordering on these canals and discovered over 
three hundred years ago by the Spaniards? It is thought 
by visitors that when those houses were built, they were 
near a level with the water, but they were built so long 
ago that the water has worn the rock and earth down 



6 LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 

over a hundred feet below the houses. How many years 
must have rolled into eternity since those houses were 
built. Who made the sword that was found at Negro 
Hill near Mormon Island? 

This Island, in early mining days, was taken up by the 
Mormons. A colored man came along one day and 
visited the prospect. The whites told him the Isle was 
all taken up, and if he wished to prospect he must go on 
to the west side of the river, where he could sink a shaft 
and might find gold. He went to work and sunk a shaft. 
It was thirty feet deep to the bed rock. In the bottom 
of that shaft, on the bed rock, he found a sword. It was 
two feet and a half in length, and two inches and a half 
in width. Everything but the metal had decayed, and 
that was a great deal rusted. They ground it up and 
found it composed of the very best of steel, and best of 
temper. Now who made that sword? 

When I was mining in Coonhill I sunk a shaft called 
" The Last Chance." When ninety-live feet deep I came 
upon a stratum of charcoal; went through that and five 
feet more of sand and gravel, and came to the second 
stratum of charcoal, and four feet further to the bed 
rock. Now, how did that charcoal get there? 

I sent a bag of it to the blacksmith in Hangtown, who 
burned it in his forge. He said he never burned better 
coal in his life. It was almost equal to stone coal, it had 
been buried so long. 

I might go on the whole evening producing evidence of 
a prehistoric civilized race, but I deem it superfluous, as I 
am addressing a learned audience, which is well posted 
in all the mighty evidences that go to substantiate the 
existence of a prior man. The Spanish give an account 
of a civilized race that lived on the Northwest Coast as 
early as five hundred of our Lord. They lived there 
till one thousand of our Lord A when they emigrated to 
the river Gilla and table lands of Mexico, and there by 
some means they became extinct — probably by some 
mighty upheaval of the earth. The houses and for- 
tresses, churches and villages, that are being unearthed 



LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 7 

by the Smithsonian Society would lead one to believe 
that this race was destroyed by an earthquake. 

They were followed by Aztec races who handed their 
traditions down to the Mexicans who wrote them up, a 
published account of which can be found in the old 
Spanish archives at Guam. This race was known as the 
Nahoa race or Toltec family. 

Until lately the Hawaiian race have been supposed 
(but not proven), to have descended from the Malay 
race. They might just as well say we sprang from the 
Malay as that the Hawaiians did; they bear not the 
least resemblance. The Malay has a very low, sloping 
forehead, with the hair or bristles down nearly to the 
eyes. They have very large cheek bones, long and peaked 
chins, with more of the animal than human. The 
Hawaiians have high foreheads, long black hair, the men 
have very strong beards, are quick to learn trades and 
all manner of work. The ladies have very long hair. 
Some of them have hair that they can place beneath 
their feet and stand upon erect. Zula, the pride of 
Honolulu, stands five feet, four inches and has very fine 
hair, and can place her hair four inches beneath her feet 
and stand upon it. 

They used to live to a great age. I have conversed, 
myself,- with an old chief that remembers well Captain 
Cook, and told me many things that took place at that 
time or at Cook's visit and death, and was hardly ever 
sick, knew nothing of unmentionable diseases, until the 
arrival of the whites, and were a very powerful and 
athletic race. 

I spent ten years hard work and some money to find 
out the origin of the Hawaiian race, and by comparison 
of color and the physiognomy of the two races, I could find 
no resemblance of one race to the other. On examination 
of the head of Hawaiians, I found a large analogy to the 
Circassian race, while with the Malay I found a large 
analogy to the brute creation. 

The 'winds and ocean currents set directly from the 
northwest coast to the Hawaiian Islands; logs and wood 



8 LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 

drift are constantly being borne from California and 
Oregon to their shores; none is borne or could be borne 
from any other direction except by the way of the Japan 
current which unites with the California current a little 
north of the latitude of these islands. And it is supposed 
that some of an anterior race as the Toltic race were out 
in their canoes and on a sailing or fishing excursion, got 
blown off from the shores, got into the current and were 
carried to the islands. And that the Hawaiians came 
from the northwest coast of America is supported by 
such an array of probabilities and possibilities that they 
exclude any other hypothesis. When I was in Hilo in 
1880 a log drifted into Hilo Bay that we know grows in 
no part of the world except the northwest coast, and the 
bark on that log was still green, and the scar where it 
was cut off was still white, so anything getting into the 
current, it takes but a short time to be carried to the 
Island. 

I have compared skulls that were found in mining on 
the coast, with the Hawaiians, and found them to agree 
exactly. Their theology is one of the most striking found 
among all the heathen tribes. In the first place, they 
believe they were created by a God, and they lived in 
obedience to priests who offered prayers and sacrifices to 
their god. When addressing a god of wood or stone they 
did not address that image, but each of those images 
contained a spirit which they addressed, which took their 
petitions to their god, Wakea, When they die they go 
to Wakea. He is very kind to them, and lets them 
return to the earth as often as they wish, or as long as 
they have friends they wish to visit or enemies they wish 
to punish. When done with earth, if they have been 
good and obeyed the priest, they remain with their god 
throughout eternity. If they have not been good and 
obeyed the priest, Wakea drove them out over a precipice 
into misery. 

This theology of itself proves that they are of high 
origin. The Malays, on the contrary, believe in nothing; 
have no idea or conception of a God, or future state of 



LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 9 

existence. This people have been separated from the 
parent stock for hundreds of centuries, and their language, 
as their manners and customs, have undergone great 
changes. 

In the year of 1869 there was a large controversy as 
regarded their rightful discoverer. In hunting up mater- 
ial for my work there were so many things came to the 
surface that went to prove that they had been visited by 
some party from the outside world previous to the arrival 
of Captain Cook, that I was a great deal staggered about 
his being the rightful discoverer. 

Where did the pigs, turkeys and chickens come from 
that fed Cook's men ? They were all over the group at 
the time Cook was there, and very numerous. They well 
knew, also, the uses of iron, and were willing to barter 
anything they possessed for a little piece of hoop iron or 
a nail. They knew well its value. 

Where did they obtain this knowledge? But having 
no positive proof but that Captain Cook was the discov- 
erer of the Islands, I gave him the credit, with a very 
large doubt. Before issuing my second edition of histor- 
ical sketches, I engaged Captain James Long to visit 
Guam and ascertain, if possible, the truth or falsity of a 
report that the Spanish had knowledge of these Islands 
previous to the arrival of Captain Cook. He found there 
a record that Gaetano discovered the Hawaiian Islands 
in 1642. Mandana laid down the correct position of 
Kauai in 1567. The Marquesas was discovered by 
Mendana in 1595, while Quiros saw Tahiti in 1606, which 
goes to prove most conclusively that the Spanish were 
the pioneers of discovery in the Pacific Ocean. The 
Hawaiian Islands were probably often seen by the early 
Spanish navigators, as they were right in the pathway of 
the Spanish Galleons to Acapulco by way of Guam, in 
the Marian Islands, to Manilla. 

In 1527 " Hawaii " received by misfortune of shipwreck 
its first accession of European population. In that year 
Cortes, the conqueror of Mexico, fitted out three vessels 
in Zigiatlan, a port in Sianola, destined for the Moleceis. 



10 LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 

On their arrival in the longitude of Hawaii and about 
the same parallel latitude they were dispersed by a 
violent storm, and two ships were never more heard 
from. In that year 1527, so says the native tradition, a 
strange man and woman w T ere found at Kauis, in South 
Kona, on the seashore with their heads bowed down 
apparently in grief ; the natives named this Koloa, inter- 
preted, bowed down. They were a captain and his sister, 
supposed to be the only survivors from the lost ships of 
Cortes. The natives received them kindly and tried to 
do the best they could to comfort them in their affliction. 
They lived to themselves for two years when they gave 
up all hope of being taken off the Islands, and went to 
living with their kind preservers, and their children were 
very numerous, and their descendants can be traced to 
this day by their light complexion and color of their 
hair. Their descendants are called Ahues. There are 
many words in the language evidently incorporated from 
the Spanish, as many habits and customs are similar. 

The year 1778 will ever be memorable as the first 
introduction of the Hawaiian Islands to the civilized 
world by the arch navigator, Captain James Cook, who 
clandestinely laid claim to their discovery, for he having 
seen the old Spanish chart, knew exactly where to find 
the Archipelligo, to which he gave the name of Sandwich 
Islands, in honor of, it is said, the Earl of Sandwich, 
first Lord of Admiralty of England. 

Cook's first anchorago was at Wainea, on the 18th of 
January, 1778. After visiting several of the Islands, he 
sailed for the northwest coast and returned to the Islands 
on the 20th of November of the same year, 1778, after 
visiting several of the ports he had formerly visited. He 
anchored in Kalakakua bay on the 17th day of January, 
1879; he was joyfully received by the people, they believ- 
ing him to be a God. 

The priest approached him whenever he landed, crouch- 
ing down to the ground, reciting prayers, and going 
through all the forms of their idol worship, concluding 
by investing him with the sacred red tape and placing 



LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 11 

before him offerings of pigs, chickens and fruits, etc. 
During his stay at Kalakakua, a period of eighteen days, 
the people refused any remuneration for supplies, but 
furnished the ships with a profusion of hogs and the 
choicest productions of the country, and even watered 
his vessels by bringing water from a long distance. There 
was plenty of water near at hand, but they, believing 
him to be a God, brought water that was tabued for the 
use of the common people, and used only by the priests 
in their offerings. After he and his crew had satisfied 
themselves with the good things of the Islands and the 
vices of the people, on the 4th of February his ships put 
to sea, but after one day's absence he returned to his 
anchorage to repair a defective mast. 

His reception was cool upon the part of the people, 
some of the more venturesome committing thefts from 
the ships, which was followed by swift and stern retribu- 
tion on the part of the foreigners, some of Cook's men 
killing a high chief. 

In the melee that ensued, Cook was heavily pressed 
upon, when he groaned, which convinced the people that 
he was no God, and they immediately set upon him and 
stabbed him to death with the pahoa or wooden dagger. 

Thus ended the life of Captain James Cook, in the 
zenith of his fame and the prime of his age, a victim to 
his over-weening confidence in his ability to over-awe the 
Hawaiian s. Cook's body was never eaten, but his bones 
being carefully divested of flesh, were scattered among 
the tribes according to the customs of the country. You 
have always read in your books that Cook was killed 
and eaten by cannibals, but it is most absurdly fahe. 
The Hawaiians never were cannibals, many written and 
missionary lies to the contrary notwithstanding; had they 
been cannibals, would they not have eaten that poor man 
and woman that were cast upon their shores nearly four 
hundred years ago, 1527 ? There was one cannibal chief 
on the Isle of Oahu, and he lived in a little valley in the 
shape of an ox bow in the mountains of Yailua, and had 
a tribe of about three hundred people, and he flourished 



12 LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 

but a very short time. His butchers being killed, he 
could procure no one to get him victims. This horrid 
custom was banished from the kingdom for ever, and it 
was so long ago that his Hea or temple, though built of 
solid rock, has all crumbled into sand. Only a small 
ridge of sand marks the place where his temple stood, and 
he was shunned by all the other tribes of the group as a 
pestilence. " Why, that man eats human flesh, 77 and 
they avoided him as they would a viper. He was the 
only cannibal that ever had existence on the Islands. 

And no missionary from the first to the present time 
has ever received the least unkindness from their hands 
and I defy the whole host of them to prove anything to 
the contrary. Captain Clark, who succeeded Cook in 
command, landed a body of mariners, slew many natives 
and burned their huts to the ground. Hostilities ceased 
on the condition that Cook's remains be returned, which 
being done, they were buried in the placid waters of 
Kalakakua Bay, February 21, 1779. 

In 1786 the Islands were visited by a French navigator, 
Lafaronse. Vancouver made his first visit to the Islands 
in 1792, his second in 1793, his third and last in 1795. 
He was a very kind and good man, and on the occasion 
of his second visit he took cattle and horses to the Islands 
as a present to Kamehameha, the First, who was then 
engaged in his war of conquest of the group. Kameham- 
eha, the First, was termed the Great, and justly so, when we 
remember that he was only secondary chief in one of the 
ten tribes of Hawaii, But with all these mighty odds 
against him, he conceived the idea of conquering not only 
the tribes of Hawaii, but all the tribes of the group. He 
made war with his tribe, on a neighboring tribe and con- 
quered. With the two he moved upon the third and 
conquered, so he went on from conquest to conquest, 
until all of the ten tribes fell into his hands. With this 
immense army he moved upon Maui and conquered, then 
to Molokai and conquered; then to Oahu, and so he went 
on until seven Islands fell into his hands. The high 
chief on Kauai sent him word that he need not come 



LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 13 

there with his army, he did not wish to have his people 
slain, but he would acknowledge him as his King and 
rightful ruler. Thus ended the war, and Kamehameha 
realized his dream, and became ruler of the entire group 
of Islands, which he formed into a kingdom of which he 
became the head. He was a brave, just and wise ruler. 
On the occasion of his death, which occurred May 8, 1819, 
he was succeeded by his son, Liholiho. The young king 
was given to advancement the same as his father, and 
soon after his accession to the throne he abrogated many 
of the tabus which had for centuries held sway over this 
entire people. Some of the more onerous I will mention: 
A common native could not approach his chief from the 
way of the sun; if the shadow of a common native fell 
upon the chief, it was certain death. A man was com- 
pelled to build a house for himself, one for the women 
with whom he lived, and a shed for beating tapa. If a 
man and woman were caught eating together, it was 
death. Man was considered the superior being. The 
woman had to wait upon him while he ate his meals, 
then go into her apartment and eat her's. If a person 
was caught in a canoe upon a tabu day, it was death. 
If a person stood erect while the King's bathing water or 
his tapa was carried past, it was death. These and 
many other tabus were abrogated by this King, Liholiho. 
He desired to have more liberty for his people. He said 
to them: " You are my children. I am your father, 
and I wish you to come and see me, but I will have no 
more bowing down or scraping and getting around behind, 
but come walking straight like men. I care nothing for 
your shadow, let it fall upon me or not, come and see 
me." Then he turned to the ladies and said to them: 
" Come to the meal with us — have no more fear of the 
priests. I will stand between you and them and all harm 
that may come from the meals." And they did come. 
Talk about heathenism! Here is a native King who, 
they tell, is steeped in heathenism and darkness, redeem- 
ing women from that thralldom of degredation in which 
they had been held for untold centuries, to become on 



14 LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 

equality with man. Noble and dignified King, to dare to 
trample under foot the dictation of the priest. How 
many are there in our time who would put their foot 
upon woman if they could, and hold her down if they 
dared? But woman is bound to rise until she becomes 
man's equal. This innovation of the new King caused no 
little excitement. The priests saw plainly that with the 
breaking of the tabus and the neglect of idol worship 
their power over people and their influence with the 
chiefs were gone forever. They resisted this abrogation 
with open rebellion, but the King's forces were most 
gloriously triumphant and priestcraft and idolatry were 
forever abolished. The priests who caused the people to 
rebel against the King were clubbed to death. Then 
they turned to their Gods and said : " We went to war for 
you. You went back on us, and did not help us fight. 
Now we will kill you." They pitched into them. Some 
they burned, some they cast into the sea, whilst others 
they treated with the utmost contempt, hewed in pieces 
and used them a§ kindling-wood. Idol gods were 
denounced as a vanity and lie. Thus an Unseen Power, 
which sometimes leads men unwittingly, led Liholiho to 
perform one of the greatest acts that ever transpired in 
an untutored nation. 

The first missionaries arrived on the Islands the 4th of 
April, 1820, and the response to their most anxious 
inquiries concerning things on the Islands was, Liholiho 
is King, the Islands are at peace, the gods are destroyed 
and the temples are demolished. Remember, friends, 
that this transpired before the arrival of a missionary on 
the Islands. 

At the time of their arrival, the people had no written 
language. They composed an alphabet of twelve letters 
upon which they founded the language of the Hawaiian 
Kingdom. In this they showed great sagacity, knowing 
that visitors would not readily learn it. Thus they 
thought to prevent a diffusion of knowledge contrary to 
their teachings. They wished to usurp the powers of the 
chiefs and to mould the people blindly to their purposes. 



LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 15 

After erecting commodious residences for themselves, 
they built churches and school houses, they commenced 
to make presents to the royal families and chiefs and 
endeavored to get them to attend their churches and 
schools, but it was a long time after their arrival before 
any converts were made to their religion; and who won- 
ders ? They had been taught for generations away back 
at their mothers' knee to believe in Wakea as their god, 
and if they were good and obeyed the priest they would 
spend an endless eternity with him. With these teach- 
ings thoroughly instilled in their minds, how could it be 
expected of them to turn immediately around to any 
other god? Liholiho took no stock in their religious 
teachings, but after two years had elapsed he told his 
people to go to school and learn to read and write. After 
receiving this command from their King, they did go to 
school and they were plied with many presents from 
their teachers, but it was four years after the arrival of 
the missionaries before any converts were made to the 
new religion, the first one being baptized in 1824, and 
this was a very notable one, no less than the high chief, 
Kaopualana, the mother of the second and third Kam- 
eamehos. It would be well to mention here that the 
chiefs owned the lands and the people, not only these 
but everything that flew in the air or swam in the water 
were the chiefs, and a blind and implicit obedience to 
the powers that were was all the people knew, and when 
the missionaries succeeded in getting any of the ruling 
power in their churches they ordered all their tribes to 
go and have their names written in the church book, and 
this was palmed off to the world as so many conversions 
to Christianity. I know when I was a boy the papers 
came loaded down with wonderful conversions of the 
heathen to Christianity, two and three hundred in a day, 
and a nation born to the Lord in a day; and it was 
certainly most marvelous if it had been true, but stand- 
ing in line having your names registered the same as 
you w r ould at the postoffice, I cannot conceive as any 
true conversion to Almighty God, and in this way the 



16 LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 

nation was born to God in a day. In this way they 
succeeded in getting a large number of neophytes in their 
churches, and in gaining a large control in government 
affairs, and everything went swimmingly in the interest 
of the Protestant mission ; but they were not to have 
their own way always. 

On the 7th of July, 1827, the first Roman Catholic 
mission arrived at Honolulu. The mission consisted of 
two priests and several layman. After they were landed 
from the ship, an order was issued to the captain to take 
them on board again, as they had landed without per- 
mission. This order he would not execute, and sailed 
away without them. Previous to the arrival of the Pro- 
testant mission, a Catholic mission had sailed past the 
Islands, but anchored in Honolulu harbor some days, 
during which time two of the chiefs had been baptized 
in the Catholic faith on shipboard in August, 1819. 
These chiefs gave shelter to the Catholic mission, and 
for several years they remained unmolested. The first 
Catholic chapel was opened in January, 1828. In 1829, 
the two Catholic chiefs, Bold and his brother sailed away 
upon an expedition from which they never returned. 
Kaahumana, who was then Premier of the Kingdom, on 
her return to Honolulu, fully under the influence of the 
American mission, on its return to Honolulu, had her 
attention called by the American clergy to the rapid 
growth of the Catholic religion on the Isle of Oahu, as 
their different modes of worship and showy tinsel had 
attracted large numbers to their places of worship. They 
thought that something must be done to stay the turning 
of their converts to Catholicism. She gave strict orders 
to the priests to close their doors and commanded the 
people on pain of punishment to forsake the new religion. 
Now commenced a persecution against the native pro- 
fessors of Catholicism on the part of Kaahumana and the 
Protestant missionaries. Some, for refusing to renounce 
their faith, were kept in confinement at hard labor like 
criminals, and women were put in irons, like murderers. 
Others were kept in prison and at hard work making 



LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 17 

mats. It is not my object to comment on the acts of the 
Protestants, but to mention facts as I find them. 

In April, 1831, the chiefs who had remained with the 
Protestants, in conjunction with the Protestants issued a 
formal order, in writing, that the priests depart from 
the Islands. In the latter part of the same year, the 
priests and the government, which was wholly and totally 
controlled by the American mission, fitted out the brig 
Waverly, and placed her under the command of Captain 
William Sumner, and in December, 1831, the Catholic 
mission was placed on board, and the brig sailed for 
California, where she arrived safely and the missionaries 
were landed. They were kindly received by co-religion- 
ists. After the departure of the priests the persecution 
against their converts continued. Many were punished 
by being put to building stone wall. 

About this time Commodore Downs, in the U. S. frigate 
Potomac, arrived at Honolulu. On hearing of the per- 
secution, the Commodore interfered in behalf of the 
prisoners, and represented to the government the injustice 
of persecution on account of religious belief ; and he read 
the American clergy a lesson they would long remember. 
* He told them most emphatically it was not the way to 
get the good will of enlightened nations. The Catholics 
were released, and f©r several years thereafter people of 
that religious belief went unpunished. But in 1836, 
more persecutions took place, and punishments were 
inflicted, some of a very serious character, on the 
Catholic proselytes. It would consume too much of our 
time to follow the persecutions upon the Catholic church, 
but I will state that the Catholic priests were driven off 
the Isles three different times. 

On the 18th of December, 1837, a very severe ordi- 
nance was passed by the American Protestant clergy and 
Protestant chiefs. It was headed: " Forbidding the 
Catholic Religion." That no one shall teach the pecul- 
iarities of the Pope's religion ; nor shall it be allowed to 
anx who teach those doctrines or those peculiarities to 
reside in this kingdom, nor shall any one teaching its 



18 LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 

peculiarities or its faith be permitted to land on these 
shores ; for it is not proper that two religions be found on 
these shores, or in this small kingdom. 

If any one, either foreigners or natives, shall be found 
assisting another in teaching the doctrine of the Pope's 
religion, he shall pay to the government $100 for every 
such offense. Any Papish teachers coming on shore in 
violation of this ordinance, were declared liable to pay a 
fine of $1000 and vessels and cargoes be confiscated to 
the government. 

On the 10th of July, 1839, the French frigate L'Arte- 
mese, C. Laflonce commander, carrying sixty guns, 
arrived off the port of Honolulu. Shortly after his 
arrival, the commander addressed a manifesto to the 
King in which, after setting forth that his Majesty, the 
King of the French, had commanded him to come to 
Honolulu in order to put an end, either by force or 
persuasion, to the ill treatment to which the French had 
been victims at the Sandwich Islands. He propounded 
five separate demands, in substance as follows. 1 — That 
the Catholic worship be declared free throughout all the 
dominions of the King of the Sandwich Islands ; that the 
members of this religious faith shall enjoy in them all 
the principles granted to Protestants. 2 — That a site for 
a Catholic church be given by the government at Hono- 
lulu. 3 — That all Catholics imprisoned on account of 
religion be immediately liberated. 4 — That the King 
deposit with the captain of the L'Artemese, $20,000 as a 
guarantee of his future conduct towards France, to be 
restored when the French government shall be satisfied 
that the treaty submitted with this manifesto, has been 
complied with. 5 — That the treaty, when signed, be 
conveyed on board the frigate by a high chief of the 
country and that salutes be exchanged between the, 
shore and the ship. In case the demands were not com- 
plied with and the treaty promptly signed, u war" was 
to commence immediately. The French consul was 
informed by letter at the same time that if the demands 
were not immediately acceded to, hostilities would com- 
mence at the expiration of three days. The American 



LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 19 



• 



consul received a like communication with an addition 
to the effect that the American Protestant clergy, in the 
event of hostilities, should be considered as composing a 
part of the native population. The King being absent, 
the treaty was signed by G. P. Judd, who was then pre- 
mier of the kingdom and the treaty, with the $20,000 
were carried on board the frigate by the governor, 
Kekuannoa. This ended all persecution of the Catholic 
church, and the way the natives forsook the Protestant 
church for the Catholic was marvelous, and in three 
years they more than doubled the Protestant church. 

The next horror the Protestants had to deal with was 
the Mormons. They arrived at the Islands about 1840, 
and their teachings of polygamy just suited the natives, 
and they took to the Mormons as ducks take to water, 
and in a short time they covered nearly the whole of 
Oahu ; but their, churches and schools were more in the 
country than in Honolulu. They were so numerous that 
they raised $50,000 to buy the Isle of Lanai from the 
government. 

One good missionary told me their mode of salutation 
was, after the arrival of the Mormons, " Well, the 
Catholics have been forced upon us, now the devil has 



come aiso." 



In 1835, the fifth cargo of missionaries arrived at the 
Islands. I will tell of the manner in which they went, 
then you can judge the manner of people they were. 
They went down, a hold full of rum and a deck load of 
missionaries, but even in this there were some very fine 
people, who objected very strenuously to this rum going 
down; but the ship belonged to Brewer & Co., of Boston, 
and Brewer said: "This is my ship, and the rum has 
got to go. You may go or stay, just as you please." 
They thought it over and went. On their arrival they 
found that the first four cargoes had succeeded in estab- 
lishing churches and schools throughout the group. 
Those who were earnest Christians found plenty to do, 
while worldlings had idle time upon their hands. 

Sugar cane was spontaneous to the group. The 



20 LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 

natives knew not when it commenced to grow — all they 
knew about it was that it was growing the same as any 
other bush, but when it got ripe they would break it 
down, take it in their teeth, strip off the rind, chew up 
the pulp and extract the juice. There is no doubt in 
my mind but that the first four cargoes of missionaries 
were eating the sugar cane with the natives all these 
years, for it is very good and healthy ; but the idea of 
making sugar never entered their brains. They were 
not sent there to make sugar, but to carry light to those 
who sat in darkness, and to teach the way of life and 
salvation ; to proclaim Christ as the Savior of the World ; 
to this they used their best endeavors, but when this last 
cargo arrived they had some idle time upon their hands. 
When they saw the natives eating the sugar cane, they 
thought they would try it and see what it tasted like, 
they found it very sweet. They concluded it might make 
sugar. They gathered a few armfuls of it, stripped off 
the rind, and pressed it out in an old-fashioned cheese 
hoop, the same as they used to press cheese when I was 
a little boy. They boiled it down in a small kettle. 
They found it rich in sacharine matter. It made good 
sugar. Then they thought they had struck a bonanza. 
They commenced planting out the cane. They sent 
around the Horn and imported a lot of potash kettles. 
They erected wooden mills. That is, they put up three 
upright poles confined in a frame, put a lever upon the 
top of one, hitched a horse to the lever, which set all 
three in motion. Then they shoved the cane between 
the poles, and in this manner they pressed out large 
quantities of the juice and boiled it down in potash 
kettles. 

Sugar could not be made without labor and after a 
year or so they said, " Let's make our hewers of wood 
and drawers of water out of this people.' 7 They passed 
what they termed " The Master and Servant Act," but not 
without considerable opposition. Some of the more 
humane missionaries thought they could see the negro in 
the wood pile. The same cry was raised as in the slave 



LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 21 



states, " Why, where is the harm in teaching this people 
trades and a desire to work? you can civilize them a 
great deal sooner," and the planters carried the day and 
they passed what they termed "The Master and Servant 
Act." Under this act they could take any child at twelve 
years of age and force it into their service (they did not 
wish any younger). The male they could keep until he 
was 20 and female 18, unless married previous to that. 
Marriage redeemed her from this serfdom. They placed 
them in their kitchens, in their stables, workshops and 
on their plantations ; they placed a missionary hoe in 
their hands and the lash on their backs, and in this way 
the poor creatures were driven from morn till night. As 
years rolled along there were many additions from the 
New York board of missions and plantations increased. 
American whalers also found the Islands a good place to 
visit. 

The first iron mill erected on the Islands was by Ludd 
& Co., on the Isle of Kaui. Some of the planters having 
made large sums of money, wished to sell out and return 
to the states. Those wishing to buy, did not wish to buy 
the lands without the slaves; here was a little difficulty. 

Under " The Master and Servant Act," they could not 
sell their slaves. They had to keep them until of age or 
let them go. To get around this, they went to work and 
passed " The Shipping Laws." Under this acithey could 
take any party whatever, and ship it onto their planta- 
tions. There was what was termed the long and short 
term. The short term was five years, the long term ten. 
The planters agreed to pay the slaves $5 per month, but 
out of this $5 they had to clothe themselves, furnish their 
own bedding, their own medicine, pay their own doctor 
bills and if in debt to the plantation at the expiration of 
term of service, they had to reship, and this act was 
backed by a penal code, that they could be whipped and put 
in prison until they would perform their obligations, and 
that is still in force on the Islands. A more damnable 
code of slavery exists in no part of the earth. Everybody 
remembers when gold was discovered in California, that 



22 LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 

all merchandise brought most fabulous prices. In 1850, 
Captain John Paty came from the Islands with a cargo 
of sugar to San Francisco, and he sold every pound of 
that sugar for twenty-five cents per pound. On his 
return to the Islands the news spread like wildfire. 

Good Rev. Bailey, of Wailukb, Maui, on his arrival at 
the port of Honolulu, was told the news, and in the 
presence of Mr. A, Adams, John Davis and a host of 
others, jumped two feet from the wharf and shouted, 
" Glory to God, let us make hay while the sun shines. 77 

Rev. Bailey's plantation for many years has averaged 
1300 tons of sugar per year. He has made his hay, but 
how about saving souls ? If native souls could be saved 
for twelve and a half cents apiece, sugar would run 
ahead. 

In 1856, native labor got scarce, the plantations had 
increased largely in numbers, as well as in size, and as 
many as three hundred whale ships were coming into 
the port of Honolulu, and after they hacl tried a few 
natives as seamen, they found them to make the very 
best whalemen possible to get, and many natives sought 
their chief to let them go north on the whalers in prefer- 
ence to shipping on the plantation, and thousands went 
north, and planters found themselves in a fix. They 
held a planter's meeting in Honolulu and resolved to 
send to China and import a lot of coolies, which they did. 
There are four slave ports in China, Shanghai, Wampo, 
Mucau and Canton. If I am a slave dealer, I send a 
letter to one or more of the mandarins of these ports, 
stating the number of slaves I want, and that my ships 
will be in their ports at such a time. He says to Kikoe, 
"Go out and drive in so many, don't take any sick, or 
over and under such an age." They are driven in like a 
herd of cattle into the rantoon, where they are locked up 
until the arrival of the slave ship. When the gates are 
thrown open a guard of soldiers is placed on each side, 
and they are driven on board and taken off to their 
destination. On the arrival of the coolies (slaves) in 
Honolulu, word was sent to the different plantations, 



LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 23 

" Coolies have arrived, come and get your number." The 
planter picks out those he will have for his, for which he 
pays the government $50 cash down or gives bonds that 
the government will accept for each and every coolie, 
which he charges over to the coolie and makes him pay 
for himself, out of his five dollars per month, for he 
receives the same wages and the same treatment as the 
shipped natives, with the exception of paying for himself. 
Every disobedience on the part of a bonded laborer is 
submitted to whipping or imprisonment, or both. All a 
slave gets in working out & fine is twenty-five cents a day. 
After he has paid his fine, he has to return to the planta- 
tion and work two days for every day absent from the 
plantation; so, the planter made money by having his 
slaves locked up in a slack time. 

In addition to all this, if a field hand broke a tool he 
had to pay for it. If a house hand broke a dish he had 
to pay for it. To show the workings of this most nefar- 
ious system, I will mention one instance: James Dudoit 
was murdered by his Chinaman on the 20th of July, 
1859. When the Chinaman was standing upon the trap 
beneath the gallows, he was asked if he had anything to 
say. He said, " Yes, me say this: me work five years: 
me no money; me have to ship again; me break one 
saucer; he charge me half a dollar; me kill him; me 
hang up; me no care." Thousands of such charges were 
made every year, but few paid the penalty of Dudoit. 

Kamehameha, the Third, was wholly and solely under 
the control of the American Protestant clergy. Whatever 
they asked or in whatever direction they pointed their 
finger, he would do or go. And they gave him the title 
of Kamehameha, the Good, but under his reign, four of 
the most damnable acts were passed that ever disgraced 
a statute book. 1— The persecution of the Catholics. 
2— The master and servant act. 3 — The shipping 
laws backed by a penal code. 4 — The enabling act to 
procure coolies. Kamehameha, the Fourth, was mostly 
under their control, but he had a mind of his own and 
was the means of getting the Church of England in the 



24 LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 

Islands. This was a very bitter pill for the American 
Protestant mission to swallow, but they had to take their 
medicine. No persuasion or threats would turn him 
from his purpose, and the Church of England has been 
an established fact ever since 1860. They have two 
colleges and one of the best schools on the Islands for 
females, and a very large following among the white 
population, and some natives and half breeds. 

But the Catholic church is by far the largest on the 
Islands. Kamehameha, the Fifth, was King, and what- 
ever he thought was right, he \Vould do, but he would 
have no usurpation by any religious party. To show 
how the missionaries stood in awe of him, I will mention 
an instance: In one of their weeks of prayer some sug- 
gested that they set apart a day to pray that the King 
would get married. The news went to the palace. He 
sent them word that they might pray for the prosperity 
of his kingdom and his health, but just as sure as they 
went to meddling with any of his private concerns, he 
would turn his soldiers upon them and march all off to 
prison. It is needless to say that day of prayer never 
came off. Another instance: One of the Protestant 
clergy got on his high heeled shoes on the Fourth of 
July, 1866, and gave the King a very severe raking for 
passing the second constitution. He received orders to 
leave the Islands on the first boat that left, or march to 
prison. It was remarkable how soon the high-toned 
clergyman had a call to Oakland, California. The King 
would allow him no time to fix up his business, but com- 
pelled him to leave on the first boat. Kamehameha, the 
Fifth, was King and all knew better than to trifle with 
him. 

In the abrogation of the first constitution he also 
showed himself King. A convention was called con- 
sisting of the nobles, the King's ministers and delegates 
chosen by the people. This convention assembled at 
Honolulu, July 30, 1863. Several weeks were spent in 
debating the draft of a new constitution, but it appeared 
that an unreconcilable difference of opinion existed 



LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 25 

between his Majesty's government and many of the 
delegates. The consequence was the convention was 
dissolved, and on the 30th of August the King promulga- 
ted the present constitution of the Islands. 

The main fight of the missionary element was against 
Article II, which declares that involuntary servitude, 
except for crime, is forever forbidden in this kingdom. 
Whenever a slave shall enter this kingdom, he shall be 
free. 

But their ill will made no difference to the King, he went 
on remodeling his government and endeavored to keep 
whatever land these cormorants had not already absorbed. 

We made our first visit to the Islands in 1862, and 
saw many things which we thought inconsistent with the 
calling of a missionary. But being raised to believe that 
a missionary was next to our Savior, said nothing which 
we thought would mar the cause of foreign missions. 

We made our second visit to the Islands in the month 
of March, 1865, and remained on the Islands sixteen 
years and some months, and what we say in these pages 
is from personal knowledge. For over three years we 
watched the operations of the labor system on the group. 
Becoming convinced that it was more damnable than 
any southern slavery ever was, we resolved to start a 
paper and ventilate its cussedness to the world. Our 
paper had not been running three months when Kameha- 
meha was thoroughly convinced that coolieism and 
slavery were against his people and the best interests of 
his kingdom, and he washed his hands completely out of 
them. 

And when Sam Wilder went on his mission to China 
to procure six thousand more coolies, he went without 
the King's commission or government backing. And he 
returned with one woman and a very few coolies (Sam 
paid $75 for his woman). He got just what he had cash 
to pay for and no more. And during the balance of 
Kamehameha's reign, no more coolies were shipped into 
his kingdom. 

Kamehameha, the Fifth, died in 1872 and William 



26 LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 

Lunahilo ascended the throne in February, 1873, and died 
within the year, before shaping any course of policy, as 
there was no legislature under him. There was something 
mysterious about William's death, and it is believed that 
he was poisoned to make room for some one else. 
Kalakakua was made King on the 12th of February, 1874, 
pome say by right, some say by bribery, as some repre- 
sentatives sold their votes. 

There were two candidates in the field, Kalakakua and 
Emma, the wife of Kamehameha, the Fourth, but she had 
no title to royal blood, as she was half white and supposed 
to be the daughter of an Englishman by the name of Dr. 
Rook. At any rate he adopted her as his child, the 
mother and the man that ought to be her parents being 
full blooded natives. It w r ould never do to explain the 
genealogy of the Kings and Queens, except the Kame- 
hamehas, they were of undoubted blood. 

As soon as Kalakakua was made King an embassy 
was sent to China, and the slave trade was again opened, 
and the Asiatic herd swarmed over the group, and slave- 
holders held high carnival. They not only imported 
Chinese, but they stole from the MarguSas Kingmills 
group; also from New Guinea. From the last mentioned 
place they captured many cargoes. But the capture of 
one of these man-stealers by an English man-of-war put 
a stop to these crusades, and intimidated the slave-steal- 
ers of the South Pacific Ocean. So they are principally 
confined to the Chinese, Japanese and the natives of the 
Islands. Of the latter there are but few left. 

Mr. Claus Spreckels made his first visit to the Islands 
in 1876. He is a verv shrewd financier. He saw his 
opportunity, and endeavored to get a large grant of land 
and water rights. The King had an honorable set of 
ministers, who could see no justice in granting one man 
power that would involve several plantations in ruin. 
Seeing that he could make no headway with the ministers, 
he went to the King and offered him a large sum of 
money to turn the ministers out. In a short time the 
ministers were called to the palace. They went to Mr. 



LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 27 

C. C. Harris and said: " We are called to the palace. " 
" You are? " says Mr. Harris. "Let us go." Now this 
Mr. Harris was the one who was accused of buying up 
four emerite votes. Buying four made a difference of 
eight in the count, and by this means Kalakakua was 
declared elected King. Consequently, Mr. Harris rather 
held the whip over the King. He walked over with the 
ministers. When the King saw him he was astonished. 
He sat in silence for a while, then made a little talk with 
his ministers and sent them back to their work. In a 
short time they were called the second time. Mr. Harris 
being present in the office, walked over with them the 
second time. When the King saw him he was nonplused. 
He did not know what to say. He hung his head in 
silence for awhile, then had several words with his 
ministers and sent them back as before. Mr. Spreckels 
found this was a losing game. He concluded to change 
his tactics. He would get up a wine supper in the night, 
get the King drunk, then get a change in the ministry. 
He accordingly put his plans in operation. A feast was 
prepared at the palace. All those who favored Mr. 
Spreckels and his schemes were invited. The day before 
the feast came off, two wagon-loads of liquor were sent 
from the government store-house to the palace. The 
feast came off. About 12 o'clock at night Mr. Spreckles 
had succeeded in getting the King most gloriously drunk. 
Then he threw a pile of American bonds upon the table 
and said: "Kalakakua, turn those ministers out and 
that money is yours." He called up his lackeys and 
dispatched a note to each of his ministers demanding 
their presence at the castle. They came. He demanded 
their portfolios there and then; (and two more honorable 
men than J. Mott Smith and Alfred S. Hartwell never 
graced a senate floor.) He appointed Samuel G. Wilder 
Minister of the Interior, a Sidney petifogger as Attorney 
General and two natives to fill the other offices. Mr. 
Spreckels had nothing in his way now, all that he desired 
being readily granted. He leased the entire plain lying 
between Wailuku and Makanoa, a strip of land six miles 



28 LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 

wide and twelve miles long. He constructed a water- 
ditch 75 miles long, thereby robbing several plantations 
of their water rights. From that time to this he has 
controlled the sugar interests on the Islands and on the 
northwest coast. Soon after the treaty passed, Mr. Ah 
Fong, a millionaire Chinaman, sent a letter to the man- 
darins of China, giving an account of the overflowed and 
tule lands in the Islands, just adapted to rice culture. 
The mandarins wrote back: " You keep quiet; go to 
work and buy up all those lands if you can; if not, lease 
them for a long time." Mr. Ah Fong sent around some 
very poor Chinamen to see if the land could be bought, 
if not, to lease them for a long term of years. The lands 
were not for sale. Then they tried the leasing dodge. 
Mrs. Bishop, a half white lady, owned 500 acres of this 
overflowed and tule-land, within one mile and a quarter 
of the city of Honolulu. They went to her and said: 
" We very poor Chinamen; been work in slavery many 
years; spose we make a little lice (which means rice), 
and a little mow, (which means hay); we could make an 
honest living ; spose you no sell your land, you lease um; 
you lease um us for thirty years; two years we no pay 
money; after, we pay one hundred dollars per year for 
the whole lot." Mrs. Bishop, being a kind-hearted lady, 
and knowing well what these slaves had to suffer during 
their terms of slavery, thought if by utilizing her land 
they could make an honest living, she would let them 
have it on their own terms for thirty years — two years 
without rental, the balance of term one hundred dollars 
per year. As soon as the lease was made out and 
recorded, so there could be no going back, k they went 
around to all those having overflowed and tule-lands, and 
got hold of every acre of such land in the kingdom. 
Then Mr. Ah Fong wrote down to China: tf We have 
got the land." The mandarins sent in a lot of slaves 
direct from China to cultivate those lands. In two years 
they brought them to such a state of perfection that they 
have produced three crops of rice per year; and notwith- 
standing the fact that the lessee lives in China, and the 



LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 29 

slaves who cultivate this rice are owned in China, every 
pound of this rice is shipped into San Francisco duty 
free. Chinese rice pays our government a duty of three 
cents per pound. We might just as well have given 
China seven millions of money as to allow her to come to 
the Islands, where she could ship her rice free of duty. 

When the treaty passed, our merchants on the north- 
west coast expected that they were going to reap a large 
benefit by its action, but the Hawaiian Islands has a 
wide-awake English merchant prince, who just smiled at 
their docility. " Why, those Yankees think they are 
going to get the trade of those Islands, do they? I will 
show them they won't." He goes home to England, 
where he has a rich brother, who owns a large factory 
conducted by paupers; he has also a large lot of paupers 
to work in gardens raising vegetables to support those 
who work in the factories. He had been working a 
thousand paupers in his factory up to the time they put 
an addition onto his factory; he takes another thousand 
paupers to work among the skilled, then hires 500 
prisoners from the government to work in steel and iron, 
and everything that is made from metal, from a cambric 
needle to a ship's anchor, is made by those prisoners, 
and every year an 800-ton ship is loaded down to her 
water line with everything that it is possible to use in 
the dry goods and clothing line, also in metal line, 
carriage, harness, wheelbarrows and hand carts, suits 
and ducking of every weight, and leather and everything 
for the use of ships. Animals, as men, are brought to 
the Islands in the merchant prince's ships. He fills up 
his stores first, then sends out a call for all the traders of 
the group to come into Honolulu to a three day's or more 
auction, and he sells as long as he can get a buyer, then 
the balance is stored away in his store house for four 
months, then another call is issued for all the merchants 
to appear again in Honolulu to attend what is usually 
termed a clearing out sale and the goods being all pauper 
and prison made, can be sold for less than what our 
merchants would have to pay skilled labor, to say 



30 LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 

nothing about the material of which they are made, and 
these paupers can turn out just as fine goods as any other 
class, and our merchants stand with their hands in their 
pockets, look on and see this gentleman sell goods. This 
is another feature of the glories of free trade. What an 
outlook for our laboring classes. With our spindles and 
our furnaces stopped and looms sleeping the sleep of 
death, with free trade, what can our laborers expect? 
For we may rest assured that there will be plenty of 
merchants ready to take advantage of the pauper-made 
goods of England, to supplant our own and drive our 
laborers to the wall. 

The native Hawaiian is nearly extinct. When the 
census was taken it only gave 5,500 of full bloods left 
and about fifteen thousand with native blood in them. 
This is all there is left of this once happy and peculiar 
people. You might inquire what has caused this fearful 
loss of life. There have been three active agents engaged 
in their death dealing flood. First, the Master and 
Servant Act; second, the introduction of rum; third, the 
introduction of the Chinese coolie. These beasts in 
human form, brought their unmentionable diseases, 
opium pipes, and the accursed leprosy, which is the 
worst disease known to the human family. When this 
disease first broke out, they did not know what to make 
of it. First the native doctors tried it. They could do 
nothing with it. Then the foreign doctors, they could 
do nothing with it ; people were rotting and falling to 
pieces like so many diseased sheep. Finally the govern- 
ment got alarmed and began to separate the sick from 
the well, and sent them off to Molokai, a living death. 
Molokai is now a National graveyard. 

Leprosy is not confined to the natives and Chinese, 
but every one who meddles with it is bound to get it. It 
is not contagious, for a leper has been known to live 
among the well in the same house for years and none of 
the balance get it ; if a man or woman lives strictly 
moral they will never have it unless by inoculation. 
There are only two ways of getting it. Live morally 



LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 31 

when on the Islands or take your chances. The climate 
of these Islands is unsurpassed, the scenery picturesque. 
The highest mountain on the group is Mauna Loa. This 
mountain is 13,958 feet high. On this mountain is 
located the famous volcano, Kilauea. The crater has a 
circumference of 28 miles, the depth in the ledge is 1,270 
feet down to the molten fusion — how deep that may be 
we know not. There are two great lakes of liquid fire 
termed the western and southern lake. Aside from these 
two immense lakes, there are six boiling chaldrons, one 
of them has the name of Makawaiwaio. This is termed 
u Pele's Kitchen," where she keeps all her servants. It 
is continually in an uproar, day and night without 
cessation ; the scoria is first rolling from one side then 
from the other and the most unearthly noises are con- 
tinually rending the air. Pele (pronounced Pala in 
English) is the goddess of fire. She has her home in 
these great lakes of fire, and for the most part of the time 
is a well-behaved lady. She is the most beautiful to look 
upon, about sixteen years of age, though she has lived in 
this liquid fire since the time it began, but never grows 
old. When in common mode she is walking, singing, 
dancing or hulahing and paddling her canoe, but some- 
times she gets on her high heeled shoes and goes on 
awful tares, that is when she thinks the world is forgetting 
her. She shakes them every time there is an earthquake. 
u Why Pele is out of humor," and takes this way to let them 
know she wants a present. When there is an earthquake, 
the people will gather around this great crater and throw 
down pigs, chickens, turkeys, tapa and blankets. If the 
earthquake continues and lava commences to flow, then 
they will gather in large crowds, go through their idol 
service, then select from among the different tribes, some 
of the finest looking young ladies in the crowd and throw 
them down this fearful abyss as presents to Pele and 
continue to do so until the earthquake ceases when they 
will wind up with songs and a hulah dance. 

I will give you a short account of the earthquake of 
1868, which was the largest and longest in the memory 



32 LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 

of man. It commenced on Hawaii, where the volcano is 
located. The earthquakes became very violent and 
frequent ; the crater began to fill up, and jets of flame 
would be thrown five hundred feet above the surface of 
the earth ; then it began to spread to the other Islands ; 
shocks very heavy and of long duration were felt all 
over the entire group, as many as twelve or fifteen every 
day, and the ocean was in a state of great agitation for 
thousands of miles around. In the middle of the second 
month, ashes were falling upon the city of Honolulu for 
the space of three days and nights, and so thick that 
they shut out the sun. We only got two glimpses of the 
sun in three days. The earthquakes grew oftener and 
more severe. Kamehameha, the Fifth, was a man of 
very strong mind for a native, and he had read so much, 
and we had talked to him so much, he had begun to get 
his mind disabused as regarded Pele. She might be a 
myth, a superstition. But when she was shaking up his 
kingdom for the space of two months and a half, he began 
to believe that she was no myth, no superstition, but an 
actual being, and was bound to have a present or sink 
his kingdom. He called up a schooner alongside the 
wharf and everything that he thought could possibly 
please a lady was put on that schooner. There were 
cases of shoes, cases of hats of finest make, cases of 
dresses, bolts of silk, bales of blankets, cases of gloves, 
cases of combs, cases of underwear, cases of hose, and 
wound up with a case of diamonds. These things were 
placed on board the schooner and taken to Hilo; there 
they were packed on mules' and horses' backs and taken 
to this greater crater and thrown down this fearful abyss 
as a present to Pele. About two weeks after this present 
was made the earthquakes all ceased and the lava flow 
ceased. The natives said: " Now Pele has received a 
rousing present, she is happy. She will let us alone a 
long while." This present cost the government just eight 
thousand dollars. I have it from Dr. Hutcherson, who 
was then Minister of the Interior, and paid the bills. 
Now I will give you Captain Brown's version of this 







I 



34 LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 

affair: He lived at Kau, where this mighty burst occurred. 
He said that his house, though built expressly to with- 
stand earthquakes, was likely to fall upon their heads. 
By crouching upon their hands and knees they succeeded 
in getting out. The earth was rocking like a cradle. 
Tall trees of the forest were switching the ground, first on 
one side, then on the other — sometimes they were on 
their heads, sometimes on their feet. The earth opened 
twenty miles in length and twenty feet in width, and 
bottomless. The captain said all at once there came a lull. 
He happened to think of the money he had in his house. 
He thought he would try and get it. He got onto his feet 
and made for his house. When he placed his foot upon 
the doorstep he happened to cast his eyes toward the 
mountains, and saw the burst coming from the mountain. 
The first was a round cone in the shape of a candle. It ( 
shot with the velocity of lightning a hundred miles to the 
sea, before falling. It looked to be ten feet through, but any- 
thing looks ten feet, seventy-five miles away; it might be 
twenty or more. Instantly following this, the whole side of 
the mountain burst out three miles in width, and a mighty 
stream of liquid fire came pouring forth, and it came 
with such velocity that it did not fall to the earth, but 
shot straight out from the mountain, and whenever it hit 
any obstruction, the Captain said it challenged the 
English language to find terms fit to express its mighty 
grandeur. The stream was three miles in width, thirty 
feet in depth, and going with the rapidity of lightning, 
so, when a stream of this size hit any obstruction that 
did not give away to its mighty force, the concussion 
must be tremendous. It sent sparks and slugs of half- 
colored lava ten miles, and showers of stars of every con-* 
ceivable shape which the human mind is capable of 
grasping, and held him and his family spell-bound for 
thirty minutes — all that they could do was to wonder 
and be amazed at the mighty magnitude of nature's 
wonders. It finally fell to the woods and set them on 
fire, and continued its course with lightning rapidity to 
the sea. In its course it overtook five thousand of his 



LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 35 

stock. Twenty of his natives were also swept from the 
earth by this mighty stream of fire. It continued its 
course to the sea, a distance of over a hundred miles, and 
in its course it struck one corner of the Captain's house 
and set it on fire, but they were very glad to get from 
Madam Pele with their lives. This tremendous stream 
continued to flow ten days into the sea. In the first 
instance it formed an island some distance from the 
shore, but it continued to flow until the island was joined 
to the main land. 

To an intelligent mind, it would appear that the letting 
off of these mighty forces of whatever they might be, was 
the salvation of the Islands and not the present to Pele. 
What a power must have been penned up in those 
mountains, to send those streams with such force ! 

The natives maintain inwardly, and many practice out- 
wardly their old religious belief. Their faith in the Kahuna 
is unshaken. They believe that they can pray any one to 
death that they undertake. I will just mention one case 
to the point. A young, genteel-looking native came into 
my place of business one day. u I believe I am being 
prayed to death." I asked him what was the matter 
with him, if he felt well. Yes, but he knew he was being 
prayed to death. Is it possible that you, being educated 
in college and a member of H. H. Parker's church, can 
believe in such nonsense? it was no nonsense. He knew 
that Kahunas could pray any one to death. I told him 
to go to the Queen's hospital and be examined by the 
doctor. When he came back I asked him what the 
doctor said. " Just as you do; there was nothing the 
matter w T ithme; only superstition; go home and shake it 
off and think no more about it and it would be all right." 
I told him to go home and go to work and punch such 
nonsense out of his mind, and ask God to help him. He 
went home and went to bed and in two days was a dead 
man. They believe in spotted pigs to cure sickness; and 
no matter about their profession of foreign religion, or the 
teachings of foreigners, they invariably sprinkle water 
about their houses and fences to keep off the spirits of 



36 LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 

the dead, as they believe that the dead return to the 
earth as oft as they wish, to torment their foes or visit 
friends. They have traditions where the living have 
ventured out alone after dark, have been seized upon and 
carried off to the unseen world and no trace could ever 
be found of them afterwards. They have superstitions 
regarding the barking of dogs and the crowing of cocks. 
To show the practice of their religion I will mention an 
amusing case of Waiku, when he was a small boy. The 
missionaries thought he was endowed with a great deal 
of wisdom — far more than any of his fellows. They took 
good care of him; sent him to school, to high school and 
to college, and he graduated with high honors, and as a 
first-class missionary. Shortly after he graduated, he 
came to live in my neighborhood. The second Sabbath, 
we made him superintendent of the Sabbath school and 
when the preacher was not present he used to preach — 
and more eloquent sermons you would not wish to listen 
to. In the college in which Waiku studied, every student 
had to study or work two hours a day at some trade or 
profession aside from the college course. Waiku chose 
the carpenter's trade. He being a carpenter, and I 
having a building to move, I thought it my duty to give 
him the job. I did so. He came with his men, and 
when he had got the building about half way on board 
the wheels that were to take it away, I heard some one 
cursing and swearing worse than I ever heard a man of 
war. I went out of my store and said: " Waiku, I am 
astonished. I thought you was a good Christian — a 
good missionary.'' He clapped his hands to his mouth, 
and said: " I am missionary here; that all the missionary 
I am. I am Kanaka all over." 

A school teacher came into my office one Monday 
morning from the Kolon side. I asked him where he 
had been. "Oh, I have been to Kalau." "What have 
you been to Kolau for?" "Oh, to talk about God." 
" What, are you a preacher, a missionary ? " " Oh, 
yes; me preacher, me missionary." "How do you make 
your life and profession correspond? Every time I meet 



LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 37 

you I hear you cursing and swearing, and I hear you 
eurse your scholars in school. " " Ouakaheva." It may 
not be right for foreigners to curse and swear, but it is 
perfectly right for a native. They will go to church, 
sing and pray, and be very zealous on the Lord's side, 
go out and meet a hula gang and join right in with them 
and have a carouse for all it is worth. And so on to the 
end of the chapter. 

Another good disciple bargained with another for a lot 
of indigo brush, from which they make coal baskets, for 
the sum of ten dollars. Another native hearing this brush 
was for sale, went with ten dollars in his hand and said: 
u See here, you give me that brush, and I will pay the 
money right now." u You hold on, I will send that fellow 
word if he don't pay the money right quick I will let you 
have the brush." He got the word. He went to a neighbor 
of mine, Mrs. Houghtelling and tried to borrow the 
money. She knew he was a scoundrel and would not 
let him have it. Then he happened to think of me. " I 
guess that hoary down there has got ten dollars, I'll go and 
take a look." He came into my store about an hour 
before sunset, dropped into a chair and pulled his hat 
down over his eyes and began scanning the store. He 
probably sat there about half an hour. He made up his 
mind I must have ten dollars; he would come that night, 
kill me, get ten dollars, pay for his brush and then for 
Pillikea all trouble would be ended. He went home, got a 
large cane knife, the blade of which was fifteen inches 
long, an inch and a half wide, and one-eighth of an inch 
thick, brought it into my neighborhood and ground it 
on a Chinese grindstone and just at dusk went and hid 
himself just opposite my store, among some cactuses. 
About dark there came up a little shower. I had just 
lighted my lamps, and after a little while I took a turn or 
two on my veranda and concluded there would be no more 
trade that night; went in, put out my large lamps and 
lighted my bed-room lamp, and there came a terrific 
knocking at the door. I demanded what was wanted. 
He said some oil. "Come out and give me some oil." 



38 • LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 

This threw me off my guard. The natives are great 
gamblers and most of them are at some sport most of the 
night. My health had become very feeble, and I was 
forced to leave the city proper, to find pure air and 
moved out to Kalihi valley, about one and a third miles 
from Nunanu street. Shortly after I had commenced 
business there, the natives came to my place in the dead 
hours of the night. I, being a stranger, did not open my 
doors. The next morning they came in a large crowd 
and said: " Don't you be afraid of us at all, we know 
what you have written for us in your paper, and we know 
that our king loves you, and when we want anything, no 
matter what time of night it is, you open your doors and 
admit us; we will pay for what we get and go away 
* quietly." After this, I did open my doors several times 
in the dead hours of the night to them and they did just 
as they said, paid for what they got and went away 
quietly. And when this man asked for oil, it threw me 
off my guard. I opened my door, and saw that he was 
a strange native. I asked him how much oil he wanted. 
" Five cents worth. ," I drew the oil, but kept my eyes on 
the native. Then he said: 'Til take five cents worth of 
plainer" (meaning hard bread). I had a case that had 
been brought in near night of the same day and the tiers 
were unbroken. I tried to get them loose with one hand, 
but could not and had to take both hands to liberate the 
bread and my eyes followed my hands. As quick as a 
flash, there came a tremendous blow on the back of my 
neck. In the first place I thought I was struck with a 
club. I put my hand up to my neck and two fingers 
went into the gash between my head and neck, and 
instantly the blood spurted out in every direction. He 
cut a gash in my neck six inches long and an inch and a 
half in depth by the doctor's measurement, and all he 
wanted was ten dollars to pay for indigo brush, and he was 
one of their converts to Christianity. I should not mention 
this but to show that their profession has nothing to do 
with their lives. Since they have become what mission- 
aries term Christianized, thefts, robberies and murders 




LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 39 

have been frequent. But under the rule of the chiefs, 
murder was scarcely known, but the reason for this was, 
they knew nothing of values, but since, they have learned 
the value of money they care not what they do to obtain it. 

They have at the present time every facility for obtain- 
ing a good education on the Islands, as elsewhere, but 
the scholars are very licentious, and parents who care 
for the moral culture of their children are sending them 
to the states to be educated. There are six colleges on 
the Islands, one Missionary, two English, three Catholic, 
and many high schools for boys and girls. These Islands 
being in the very center of mighty and growing commerce, 
are now and always must be of untold interest to com- 
merce. Honolulu is simply an ocean hotel. If the 
accursed system of coolieism could be overthrown, I 
know of no place where I would rather live. But with 
that system in force, I know of no place that I would 
more quickly flee from. 

For fear that the slave-holding missionaries would 
undertake to blacken my character, I will make a plain 
statement of facts. After my head was cut by the native 
I began to grow very erratic. Sometimes I was lost as to 
my whereabouts; sometimes I felt like I was in a dark 
room hunting for something, and had a great dread of 
coming poverty; and I moved from Honolulu to Maui, 
and started a store about a mile from Spreckle's planta- 
tion. His men dealt with me considerably. After the 
weather got hot they wanted me to let them have a club 
at my store and meet twice a week. If I would let them 
do that they would continue to trade with me; if not, 
they would go to a Chinese store to do their trading. 
They only wanted beer, and would have no drunkenness. 
I, being in that state of mind that any one could do with 
me just as they pleased, after some persuasion, agreed to 
let them have my hall two nights in a week. They met 
and had very sociable times. During the winter previous, 
a runaway thief from Denver had come to the Islands as 
a full-fledged Odd Fellow, he being treasurer of that 
society in Denver; also connected with other societies, 



40 LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 

which he had also robbed of considerable money. He 
could or did make out his own credentials and came to 
the Islands in flying colors, and immediately got onto 
the police force, and was sent to Maui as deputy marshal. 
He cut a great splurge and was going to stop all work on 
Sunday. Captain Hobson owned a short railroad run- 
ning from Wailuku to Spreckle's plantation, and the 
engineer was at work on his engine cleaning it up and 
oiling, etc. Mr. Lord Deputy told him to stop all work 
on Sunday — he would have no work on Sunday; which 
greatly incensed Captain Hobson. He sent his demurrer 
to headquarters, and Mr. Deputy was called to appear at 
a certain time at Honolulu. He saw that he had put 
his foot in it, and sought to redeem himself by doing 
something that would bring in a good sum of money into 
the treasury. He knew about this club at my store, and 
said, "I will go for old Bennett. Perhaps by bribing or 
by buying a few witnesses I can convict him of selling 
liquor without a license." He accordingly went to work. 
He got a half white and ofFered him fifty dollars if he 
would buy or swear that he had bought liquor at my 
store. I made a temperance drink, which I sold to 
everybody. He came in and asked for beer. I gave him 
some of my drink. After he had drank six or eight 
glasses, he began to play drunk. u Damned good beer." 
Pretty soon another native came in and got at one side, 
and whispered in my ear, could he get a glass of gin. I 
spoke up loud, so that every one in the room could hear. 
No, he could not get a glass of gin, and that he knew 
better than to ask for any such thing — he knew that I 
never kept it. He went off down to Spreckle's plantation, 
and there he met the constable, who gave him gin until 
he got pretty drunk; then he came back to my place and 
tried to get up a muss, birt found that he could not 
succeed; then he started for home. Somewhere on the 
road he met a Chinaman of whom he had been in the 
habit of getting opium. He demanded some opium; 
the Chinaman had none. Then the native pitched into 
the Chinaman and gave him a severe beating, so that he 



42 LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 

was laid up for awhile, and it was all laid to my charge, 
when he got the gin from the constable's own hands. I 
was arrested for selling liquor to the natives, for which 
the penalty was five hundred dollars. I was taken to 
the police court at Makawoa, and Smith and the con- 
stable had a lot of natives go on the stand and swear the 
drink that I sold would make a man drunk. I had 
some eight white men who had been in the habit of 
drinking at my house, as witnesses, who all swore that 
a man could not drink enough of it to get drunk; but 
with all of this evidence in my favor, I was convicted, 
and sentenced to pay a fine of five hundred dollars. I 
took an appeal to a jury. The slave-holding missionaries, 
whom I had been fighting for years, thought now was a 
good time to get even with old Bennett. When the 
case w T as to be tried, a native lawyer came to me and 
wanted to get my case. He said he had cleared two 
Chinamen the day before. I wanted to get Mr. Hartwell. 
He said Hartwell would not be there as he was busy try- 
ing a case in some other court. Just as soon as I paid him 
a fee of fifty dollars he went and mixed with the crowd. 
Smith, who was the lawyer for the crowd, got him to one 
side and offered him fifty dollars to sell me out, and tried 
to get some of my witnesses away, too. He did succeed in 
buying up two of them to swear different from what 
they did in the police court. The right number of Old 
Fellows were seen who would compose the jury, and 
everything was cut and dried beforehand. The day 
came around that I was to be tried. I had not seen my 
lawyer since the day I had paid him his fifty dollars. 
He came into the court. When the judge asked if the 
jury was satisfactory, he spoke up without consultation 
with me, and said: " Yes, perfectly satisfactory." They 
were all Odd Fellows. Some I knew, some I did not; 
and the judge who tried the case used to clean water- 
closets for a living. But any one could be a judge in 
those days, and I was condemned before the case was 
tried. Had I been in my right mind no half white 
lawyer would have got my case to try. For they are 






LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 43 

more treacherous than any other class of people on the 
earth. The club was brought in question and I was 
accused of selling strong drink, when everything was 
shipped in the name of the " S. Club." Social club was 
the title of the club, and all the boxes and casks contain- 
ing anything for the club was so marked and the boards 
and heads could have been produced in court and would 
have been if I had had my proper senses or rather there 
would have been no club, for, while in my proper senses 
I have always been a strong temperance man. I was 
mulcted in the sum of $800 and my property was sold at 
public auction to pay fines and costs, and those glorious 
slave-holding missionaries just gloated in their sleeves to 
think that a demented man had been convicted of selling 
liquor without a license, when any true christian would 
have had the greatest sympathy. In about three months 
after, I, with the remnant of my little fortune, left the 
Islands in search of some relatives. When in the state 
of Illinois, I formed the acquaintance of an old physician. 
He could see there was something wrong with my brain. 
He asked several questions, I answered him the best I 
could. He told me that if I would allow him to treat me 
for a few months he thought he could cure me. I put 
myself under his treatment and in one month's time the 
cloud that had held me captive for years, began to lift. 
I began to feel like a new man and the power of reason 
began to return, light began to shine into the dark room 
in which I had been confined so long and in three months 
I was fully restored to my senses which I have retained 
to the present time. When that native chopped my 
head nearly off clots of blood got into my brain which 
caused all my trouble. When that was removed it left 
my senses clear and I now see and understand as well as 
ever. But there is another life beyond this and if the 
scripture is ever fulfilled it will be by the slave-holding 
missionaries where it says, "Lord, Lord have we not 
prophesied in thy name, and in thy name cast out devils 
and done many wondrous things?" And Christ will say 
to them: "Depart from me ye cursed for I never knew 



44 LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 

you." My case called for the greatest sympathy, instead 
of such brutal treatment. Struck down by the assassin's 
knife and through this deprived of my reason. If this 
would not call for sympathy, what would? But I was 
opposed to their accursed system of slavery and that was 
enough to down all other consideration. But the consta- 
ble did not get any consideration for his part in the 
affair. Papers from Denver came down to Honolulu, 
giving an account of his robbing the Odd Fellows 7 
treasury and the treasuries of other secret societies into 
which he ingratiated himself, and he fell flat. So, 
retribution in his case was swift. The other's — their's 
may be more slow but will surely come. Most of the 
actors in this damnable drama are still living, and will 
probably read this sketch of their lives, and may they 
enjoy it. If there is a hell I think most or all of them 
will make their beds there. Hoping that the day may 
soon come when slavery will be abolished throughout the 
world and love and good will will hold possession of 
men's souls, and thanking my audience for their rapt 
attention, I give you my " aloha." 



SKETCHES 



OF 



Hawaiian Travel 



AND 



Scenery 



(^jCefe/fie^ 



CHAPTER I 

Mouna Hualalai, the third mountain of Hawaii, on 
account of its diminutive altitude, being only about 8,000 
feet above the level of the sea, has never yet made much 
of a figure in the annals of travelers, being passed by 
and lost sight of in view of the superior claims of the 
towering Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea. But Hualalai 
has, nevertheless, great attractions to offer, which are 
not possessed by its more pretentious rivals. To be sure, 
one cannot enjoy ice and\snow on its summit every day 
in the year, but the air is cool, bracing and health- 
inspiring; the scenery grand and picturesque, and water, 
woods and game plentiful, while the strawberries in July 
are large, delicious and abundant. Hualalai is on the 
Kona or west side of Hawaii, within half a day's ride to 
the beach. 

It was in the early days of July in the — no matter 
about the exact year — that becoming tired and worn by 
the continued office-work, I concluded to turn its cares 
over to the " devil " and gladly accepted an invitation to 
become one of a party to spend a week on the mountain. 
There were four of us, just enough to make a pleasant 
party. Our outfit consisted of a pair of blankets, two 
flannel shirts, two pairs of pants, stout boots, Scotch 
caps, guns, ammunition, tea, coffee, sugar, hard bread, 
butter, pickles, a chunk of salk pork, a sack of onions 
and one of potatoes, a frying-pan, sauce-pan, tea kettle, 



48 LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 

tin cups, and four spoons, knives, and other little matters. 
These were packed on two sturdy mules, together with 
mats and pillows for bedding, and four bundles of hard 
foi. Our attendants were four natives, who were to be 
our guides, cooks, hewers of wood and drawers of water. 
Thus equipped we started up hill at daylight, after a cup 
of delicious coffee, for whiph Kuna is so justly celebrated, 
and which the denizens of that favored district know so 
well how to prepare. We were well mounted on the 
small compact, sure-footed and enduring horses of that 
region, that will travel unshod and without water oftener 
than once in two or three days, over the roughest clinker 
road. 

For the first two miles we wound in and out among the 
tara and coffee patches, up hill through a region capable 
of producing a million pounds of the later article, where 
is now gathered less than a thousand pounds annually. 

Just as we reached the edge of the wood that in a belt 
of two or three miles wide intervened between us and the 
great island plateau of Hawaii, the first rays of the 
morning sun shone forth over the mountain, and lit up 
the long lines of foam-fringed coast and the broad ocean 
which lay in pictured beauty below us. The poet of our 
party, whom we had named " Cranky Jo," from his many 
eccentricities of character, reining up his horse, and 
striking an attitude, shouted forth: 

But yonder eomes the mighty king of day 

Rejoicing in the East ! 

The leaning cloud, 

The kindling azure, and the mountain's brow 

Illumined with dull gold ! 

His near approach betokens glad ; 

So now apparent, all aslant the now 

Bright earth and colored air, 

He looks in boundless majesty abroad 

And sheds the shining day that burnished plays 

On rocks^and hills and towers and stars 

High gleaming from afar 

Prime clearer light ! 



LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 49 

Just then Jo suddenly lighted over his horse's head, 
owing to one of the pack mules coming in violent contact 
with the enraptured poet. 

Toiling up a steep and miry hill, the road, or rather 
path, on either hand thickly overgrown with tall 
raspberry bushes, we came to an abandoned charcoal 
kiln, and near by, a deep pool of clear, cold mountain 
water. 

Thence for a couple of hours we slowly plodded on in 
the narrow path, through mud and mire, but occasionlly 
getting a glimpse of the sun overhead, through the dense 
masses of trees and shrubbery. Huge koa trees, six or 
eight feet through, we occasionally caught sight of through 
breaks in the bushes, and the tall ohis and tree ferns, 
and a hundred of other, and to us nameless, trees and 
shrubs, while the creeping vines and tropical parasites 
were everywhere. Strange birds with brilliant plumage, 
and uttering discordant notes, flew from tree to tree, 
while crows — real black crows — flew over our heads and 
followed us for miles with their impertinent caw, caw. 

About noon we emerged from the wood out into a roll- 
ing, sandy plain covered with oholo bushes, on which 
hung pendant great bunches of red and white berries, 
with here and there broad patches of strawberry vines. 
Halting, and tethering our horses, we threw ourselves on 
the sward and feasted on the great ripe strawberries as 
big as one's thumb, and with a flavor quite equal to any 
in other lands. But the fog now began to envelop us or 
what at that elevation appeared to be fog, but which seen 
from the lower lands was the usual mid-day clouds, 
and we mounted again refreshed from our abundant 
strawberry feast, and proceeded a couple of miles farther 
to a cave, where there was water and where we proposed 
to camp for the night. 

We had as yet seen no game, but suddenly we heard 
the distant "honk, honk," of wild geese, and a moment 
later three came flying over at a short shooting distance. 
While two of our party were in the act of dismounting, 
Cranky Jo, without stopping to consider whether such a 



50 LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 

course would be agreeble to the taste of the animal which 
he bestrode, dropped his reins and fired. The next 
instant Jo had left the saddle, and after describing a 
circle in the air, landed on his posterior in the soft, yield- 
ing sand with a most emphatic grunt, while his horse 
went careering over the plain. 

" Was anything hit? " he inquired as soon as he could 
gfct his breath. " Certainly, " was the reply, "don't you 
perceive there is one goose down?" " Oh, what a fall," 
my countryman ejaculated. Jo, as he carefully surveyed 
the fragments of a pocket pistol of brandy, that in the 
tumble had bounced from his pocket and got smashed, 
and then you and I and all of us fell down. After catch- 
ing Jo's horse, we proceeded on to the cave, the " ana 
puka lua," the cave with two doors as the natives termed 
it. The first entrance was near the roadside, only a few 
feet, and at first glance appeared only to be a depression 
in the earth. But, after getting down, a hole about six 
feet by four was found, and entering we found a comfort- 
able apartment some thirty feet long by fifteen wide 
with a similar opening at the further end. Here we 
spread our mats and blankets and in a few moments had 
a rousing fire. Wood was plentiful and dry from the 
dead mamuna trees that abound in that locality. While 
our boys were making coffee we stood on the road looking 
at the drifting fog and the gathering shades, when back 
came the three geese that Jo had frightened away, with 
their curiosity unsatisfied. This time they were made 
acquainted with the contents of two barrels and we had 
mountain goose for supper. These geese are peculiar to 
the Islands, and moreover, are seldom seen except on 
Hawaii. In no other part of the world, as far as known, 
have they been found. They are only partially web- 
footed and appear to frequent the water only for the 
purpose of drinking and cleaning their feathers on the 
shore, and are never seen swimming. There is a dark 
brown on the body; on the breast and neck they approach 
to a dark green; on the neck there are rings of dark 
green and black shaded with old gold. They average 



LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 51 

from five to six pounds in weight when dressed and are 
invariably fat. They abound on the slopes of the 
mountain of Hawaii, but are most plentiful at Napuu, in 
North Kona, and near Waiokapoe on the sides of Mauna 
Kea, facing towards Hilo, as in those localities they are 
seldom disturbed and there grows their favorite food. 
This is wood, called by the natives "puadcle," a kind of 
pigweed. They also subsist largely on Ohea berries, 
though they are, as I said, fat and juicy and are well 
flavored. Their flesh is dark colored and cannot be said 
to be particularly tender. 

Let me describe the manner in which our supper of 
goose was cooked that nigh in the cave. First a couple of 
slices of pork were fried in the saucepan ; on this was laid 
a layer of sliced onions, then a layer of sliced potatoes, 
then biscuit broken up fine and over this a sprinkling of 
pepper and salt, and not too much of the latter. Then a 
layer of goose cut into convenient sized pieces and so on 
with continuous layers until the pot was full. Over all a 
pint of cold water, the mess was put on the fire, where it 
was watched with hungry eyes and tended with careful 
hands for the space of one hour, when it was declared 
ready. We drew around the pot with our pans and spoons 
and the savory smell ascended heavenward; the odors of 
" Auly the blest " could not have been half so grateful to 
our olfactories. The exercise and the keen mountain air 
had created an appetite that would have driven a boarding- 
house-keeper to despair. For fully half an hour, silence 
reigned in the cave, interrupted only occasionally by a 
smack of gustatory satisfaction or a guttural " ah " from 
tickled palates. Then came the coffee — aad such coffee 
— and we lay back on our blankets, smoked their pipes 
(as the writer never smokes) and felt that we were 
really enjoying life in a new and very agreeable phase. 
Jokes were cracked, yarns were spun and the cave fairly 
echoed with our merriment. Cranky Jo was peculiarly 
jubilant. After a few minutes of mysterious pacing up 
and down in the cold wind outside, he rushed down into 
the cave and striking an attitude and his head at the 



52 LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 

same time against the over-hanging ceiling, delivered 
himself of the following, which was voted to be very- 
appropriate: 

Here upon the mountain's lofty height 

In a deep cave of Pele formed, 
Reclined about our camp-fire bright, 

Each genial heart is stirred and warmed ; 
While o : er our heads the night winds cold 

From snowy peaks sweep chilly by 
With stomachs full we're brothers bold, 

And well we know the goose hangs high . 

Then wrapping himself up snugly in his blankets, with 
his feet towards the fire and muttering, " Now I lay me 
down to sleep," under the sophistic influence of a long 
yawn from Harley Choll, an old rover and hunter on 
these mountains, of whom we will speak another time, 
was soon snoring a double bass. Throwing an extra log 
upon the fire we soon followed his example and slept as 
comfortably and soundly on our volcano hollowed cradle 
as on any four-posted bedstead built. An earthquake 
might have crushed us, but that thought never occurred, 
for earthquakes were not then the fashion on Hawaii. 

At the earliest peep of dawn we were up, and taking 
our guns strolled along the road to enjoy the exhilerating 
air. Not a dozen yards from the cave we discovered a 
flock of geese, right on the path, and a little to the right 
another of ducks. On discovering them, each of us 
dropped into the bushes and crept in different directions 
to get a shot. While thus out of sight of each other, the 
birds took wing and as they rose we succeeded in knock- 
ing over two geese and three ducks. After the birds had 
dispersed we heard a gun go off near by and looking 
around beheld Cranky Jo rolling and tumbling on the 
ground and roaring as if in great agony. " Oh dear, I 
have shot myself, I know I have," he groaned, as our 
party gathered around him. " Where, where, how did you 
do it? Let us see the wound." There it was sure enough, 
a great hole in his flannel shirt, which he wore outside of 



54 gLIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 

his pants. In pulling his gun towards him, muzzle 
towards him first, a most unaccountable and dangerous 
practice with green sportsmen, the hammer had caught 
in a vine and discharged the gun, but without touching 
Jo's skin. When this fact was made known to him, he 
jumped to his feet and surveying with much apparent 
interest the tattered tail of his shirt, broke forth in a quota- 
tion from Shakspeare on the hairbreadth escapes of war. 



CHAPTER II. 

After a day very pleasantly spent at the cave, we broke 
up camp one morning, and proceeded some two miles 
further up the mountain side to a gully called Mawai, 
formed by the water that in the rainy season sometimes 
pours like a flood down the surrounding hills. The gulch 
was now, however, perfectly dry, and its bottom covered 
with a luxuriant growth of grass, with here and there a 
mamoi tree. The sides were formed by a wall of lava, 
sometimes retreating at the base and arching out over- 
head, forming a nicely sheltered apartment, the walls 
and roof being of pure shining lava, perhaps a thousand 
years old. Our natives cutting some boughs and leaning 
them against the over-hanging rocks, intertwining them 
with grass and leaves, soon formed us a cosy retreat. 
Within this our mats and blankets were spread, forming a 
luxuriant couch. Around stood our guns with shot 
pouches and powder-flasks suspended from the walls. At 
night, when tired and hungry, we returned from our 
hunting tramps over the neighboring hills and plains, 
here we enjoyed the true otium cum dignitate. In front 
of our abode, a few feet removed towards the middle of 
the gulch, an immense fire burned of half a cord of wood. 
Around it, their dusky countenances lighted up with the 
ruddy glare, would be seen our native attendants, busy 
with the culinary preliminaries of a feast, broiling, frying 
or stewing, while tethered near at hand were our animals 
grazing on pualele that grew on the sandy soil of the 
gulch. At such a time our old mountaineer, Harley 
Choll, his memory enlivened by a pull or two at Cranky 



56 LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 

Jo's stories, was in good trim for a yarn about some of 
his mountain adventures. He was an old bullock hunter, 
and knew every hill, valley and ravine on the three 
mountains of Hawaii. One of his stories ran thus: 

" There was one time over on Mauna Kea that I had 
an awful close shave with a bull. I had been out all 
day from camp — started hungry in the morning, and 
had not seen the sign of a live critter. It was getting 
along late in the afternoon, and I was traveling back to 
camp, a matter of three or four miles, all the time cursing 
my luck, when what should I see right in the middle of 
a sandy plain, lying down under a tree, but a big black 
bull. He was a perfect stunner, and lay there perfectly 
quiet in the shade, and did not see me — but was chewing 
away at his cud, quite contented. There was not another 
tree within a mile that I could run to in case I didn't 
finish him the first shot, but I was too hungry to consider 
that, and as soon as I got near enough I up with my 
rifle and let him have it. I actually heard the ball hit 
his ribs spang — but, Lord, I didn't hurt him a mite. He 
was up as soon as you could think, and started to see 
where the shot came from s6 suddenly that it must have 
made his head swim, for he shook it at me once or twice, 
then came for me on the full jump, with his tail straight 
on end, and a full-sized devil gleaming out of each of his 
eyes. I knew there was no use trying to get rid of the critter 
by running, for, as I said before, there was not a tree within 
a mile. So I stood still and kept my eyes on the critter 
coming snorting along, while I poured a charge of powder 
into my rifle, but hadn't had time to get it down when he 
lowered his head, as bulls always do, and shutting his 
eyes made the charge that was to send me to kingdom 
come. I could almost touch his horns, and mighty sharp 
ones, when — " 

" Why did you not try singing to him?" interrupted 
Cranky Jo, who had been listening with open-mouthed 
attention until now. u Don't you know," he continued, 
that u Shakspeare, Milton, Dryden, Mason and other 
animal poets have favored the Pythagorean system, that 



LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 57 

everything, animate and inanimate, is made according 
to musical proportion? 

There's not the smallest act that thou beholdest 
But in his notion signs 
Still giving to the young-eyed cherubims 
Such harmony is in immortal souls ! 

This delivered in Jo's best stage style, produced an 
audible smile all around, which opportunity the bullock- 
hunter improved by smiling in another way. Then 
wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, and putting 
a fresh chew of tobacco into his cheek, he proceeded: 

" Well, you see, there was not much time for selecting 
tunes just then, and I did not know his favorite song, so 
I just shook the powder down into Old Jim (that is my 
rifle ) T none of your new-fashioned jimcracks, carried six- 
teen to the pound, and four feet six inches, from the 
breech to the muzzle. When that bull made his dive for 
me, I just made a side spring out of his way, and off he 
went thirty yards or more before he discovered that he 
hadn't my precious carcass on his horns. Then he stop- 
ped and looked all around, shaking his head as before. 
I kept my eyes on him, for I knew he was bound to come 
back, and so he did, charging a darned sight harder than 
before, on account of his disappointment. I was not 
quite ready for him yet, for when he came up to me on 
the second charge, I had got my bullet about two-thirds 
down. I always put a patch on my ball, and I had to 
dodge him the second time. He thought he had me so 
sure that time that he went with his great black head 
down, popping and roaring, and foaming at the mouth, 
away about forty yards beyond me, before he brought up 
and found that he had been fooled again. Then he 
turned and came for me. By this time I had got my 
ball home to the powder, but somehow I had forgotten 
where I had put my caps. I fumbled first in one pocket, 
then in another, without finding them, and the bull was 
coming like sixty." 

"Adieu, pour tajour" said Cranky Jo, sympatheti- 
cally. 



58 LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 

"'Yes," said Harley, "he intended and really expected 
to do pour jour and no mistake; but I found a cap at 
last, when he was only twenty feet from where I stood, 
and he lowered his head beautifully for his last charge. 
I lifted Old Jim and give it to him right between the 
horns. Is there anything left in that bottle? It is 
pretty dry work, this talking." 

" I will bet anybody that the ball glanced," said 
Cranky Jo during the interval occupied by Harley 
in going through the process of drinking. He proceeded 
after a pause: 

" You never saw a prettier somersault, and a quicker 
one, than that bull made. The ball went in at his fore- 
head, and he turned over so quickly that when I came to 
look for it when I was taking his hide off, after a long 
search, I'll be darned if I didn't find it right alongside of 
the hole it went in at. It had mado a complete circle of 
the critter's body before it stopped, owing to the quick- 
ness of hi3 turning over. That's the closest shave that 
Lever had with a bull." 

A meditative silence followed the recital of this yarn 
of the old bullock-hunter, interrupted at last by the 
irrepressible Joe muttering, U A beau mentir qui vient de 
loin" 

" What's that he says? " said Harley. 

" Oh, nothing," was the reply, " it is only a French 
proverb, that travelers are privileged to tell true stories." 

Thus with spinning* yarns, cracking jokes and listen- 
ing to Jo's witty nonsense, we whiled aw T ay the pleasant 
evening until the god of sleep would come and spread his 
wings over us, and we enjoyed the natural refreshing 
slumber that follows exercise and pure mountain air, and 
is unknown to the denizen of the crowded city, who often 
rises from his couch more wearied than when he lies 
down. And then the glorious mornings. First, a wash 
in almost ice-cold water, and then a ramble for a mile 
before breakfast. Let us ascend this smooth, round hill 
that rises two hundred feet above the plain. The ascent 
is easy, over decomposed lava and brown volcanic sand, 



LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 59 

and the path winds in and out among thick clumps of 
ohea bushes, with their great bunches of purple and 
yellow berries. Arriving at the top, we seat ourselves 
to recover wind, for at this elevation the rarefied air 
makes one's lungs labor like a blacksmith's bellows. A 
beautiful, as well as grand picture lies spread out before 
us. On the right, a long line of woods crowning the 
highlands of Kona, shut the sea from sight. In front, 
the wide island plain between the mountains, stretches 
out, and for miles seamed with the .black lava flows of 
by-gone days, with here and there clumps of mamai and 
ohea wood, while to the left, the course of the last flow 
(1859) is plainly distinguished, the new pahoehoe shining 
in the morning sun like streaks of silver. Over all, in 
solitary majesty, rises far above the clouds, the gigantic 
Mona Loa 13,760 feet in altitude — its head far above the 
clouds, surmounted with a cap of eternal snow, sparkling 
and glistening in the rays of the sun. Far to the east 
Mauna Kea's sharply defined peaks rise higher than its 
opposite neighbor. Turning to the west, Hualalai 8,500 
feet high, is grand and beautiful, with vegetation to its 
very top, but seems a mere pigmy in size when we turn 
again to gaze in almost awe upon its giant brothers. 
Cranky Jo interrupts our silent raptures by repeating 
from proverbial philosophy : 

Levelled of Alps and Andes, without its valleys and ravines, 
How dull the face of earth unfeatured of both beauty and sublimity. 
And so shorn of mysteries, beggared in hopes and fears, 
How that the prospect of existence, mapped by intuitive fore- 
knowledge. 
Oh for the pencil of Bierstadth ! 

And then we went back to camp and breakfast. Prose 
after poetry. 



CHAPTER III. 

After a few days spent in this pleasant camp life at 
Mawai, we began to tire of the monotony of the thing, 
even the lucious strawberries and fat geese, stewed, baked 
or broiled, began to lose their taste. So we packed one 
morning and started for the summit of the mountain. 
For a few miles our way lay over an undulating sandy 
plain thickly studded with ohio trees and cut up into 
numerous gullies made by the mountain torrents when- 
ever it rained in those regions. At length we reached a 
high belt of lava clinkers that had at some period long 
ago been discharged from the mountain and ran in an 
easterly direction (Harley Choll called them climpers) 
seven or eight miles the flow was elevated above the 
plain, about thirty feet, spreading out several hundred 
feet in width on the top. It was composed of black 
scoria and flat shaped. Detached pieces of all sizes 
and shapes from a piece not bigger than your hand to 
the size of a ship's long boat. It was quite light and 
brittle and as our horse's feet crunched over the path, it 
gave out a ringing metallic sound. For two hour's slow 
ascending travel over this singular road, we saw not a 
spear of grass or other sign of vegetation. All was bleak 
and desolate. At length, making a little detour to the 
left, we suddenly left the lava behind and came out once 
more onto the sandy plain, with its ohia and bush. 
Before us was a round hill two or three hundred feet in 
height. Ascending this by a zigzag path, made by wild 
goats, which abound in this locality; we got from the top 
looking westward, a fine view of the highest part of the 



LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 61 

mountain quite near us, but instead of the summit of 
Hualalai being formed by a single peak, as would appear 
to the observer at a distance, it was composed of 
numerous hills mostly round and worn by the elements, 
but here and there a sharp peak of volcanic rock, which 
had defied the action of rain and wind. On all these 
elevations we found more or less well-defined walls and 
pits of old ancient craters, at one time belching forth 
flame and molton rock. Now, however, all this is quiet, 
and the bunch grass grows and the berry bushes grow 
and creep, and the wild goats browse where erst the god- 
dess Pele held high carnival. Our object was to gain a 
prominent peak on the southwest cluster of hills, where 
Harley Choll said there was a cave in which to sleep and 
water near at hand. Descending from our hill, we passed 
in and out among numerous sand valleys, well wooded 
with mamai bushes, and after a steep ascent of half a mile 
we came to our stopping place. Here at an elevation of 
8500 feet, the grass was plentiful and our animals ate it 
with avidity. A pile of stones like a cairn indicated the 
position of the cave where we were to seek shelter from 
the night winds, which at this elevation above the clouds 
are at times cold and blow pretty strong. After dinner, 
and staking out our horses, we proceeded to examine our 
new cave. If it was not for the ahua, as the natives call 
the pile of stones near its mouth, a person might walk 
near the locality a dozen times and never dream of its 
existence unless he happened to tumble into it. It was 
simply a whole in the ground some ten feet across, with 
perfectly steep sides to the bottom a distance of fifteen 
feet. It had been used by cattle hunters in former times 
when wild cattle abounded on this mountain. There is 
none there now. The descent was made by a log notched 
for the feet. Once down into this subterranean retreat, 
we found ourselves in a spacious cave. The floor, sides 
and roof were of hard, shining black lava. We did not 
explore more than thirty feet either way from the 
entrance but evidently it extended much further. The 
ceiling was ten feet from the floor, which was quite level 



62 LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 

and covered with a thick layer of volcanic sand, making 
an excellent place upon which to spread our mats and 
blankets. A fire was built in the center, just under the 
opening so the smoke could ascend heavenward without 
discommoding the lodgers. Nothing could have been 
more snug, cosy and comfortable. 

Now for a good hunt ! We had seen several flocks in 
the distance but they were very shy. Our hunter, how- 
ever, went off with his gun, accompanied with two 
native boys to get some meat, as he said. He was absent 
half an hour when, as we lay under the trees enjoying a 
peaceful rest and listening to Cranky Jo's vagaries, we 
heard two shots in rapid succession near by, and presently 
Harley came in with two half grown goats. Everybody 
immediately got excited and the rest of the afternoon 
was spent in wandering over the hills in pursuit of goats. 
They were very plentiful, in herds from fifty to a hundred 
or more, and perfectly wild, so that it required great 
patience and caution to get near enough for a shot. At 
the first glance of a biped, they would be out of sight in 
an instant. Toiling through the sands, over the rocks, 
across the gulleys, climbing steeps and treading the 
tangled masses of brush, was too much for Cranky Jo 
and he soon climbed to an isloated hill and reclined at 
ease to meditate. There I found him late in the after- 
noon, as the sun was sinking towards the western horizon, 
with a pencil and paper spread out before him and a 
pocket pistol by his side. It might have been owing 
to unwonted exercise, rarefied mountain air, or the rays 
of the declining sun reflected on his face, or it might 
have been the poetic inspiration under which he labored, 
but whatever it was, Jo's face was decidedly flushed. 
■" Look here," said he, where the sun, already below us, 
was toiling through the afternoon clouds toward his 
resting in the sea. " Did you ever behold such a magnifi- 
cent sight before? No, sir, never," he continued, " no- 
where in the world," and then he bent over his writing, 
scribbling furiously for a moment. " There sir, are some 
lines that will render yours truly celebrated through all 



LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 63 

time. Its publication in Harper's will place me on a 
pedestal so high — so high that the world will wonder 
how in thunder I ever got there. Read that." I read, 

0, gentle muse that on this mountain steep 
Find'st a fitting home thy vigils lone to keep ; 
Come and vouchsafe thine aid to give, 
With strains that shall forever live ; 
While thus reclining on the sod 
I tune my heart to Persias' God ! 
High o'er my cloud — inspired notes, 
Sounds Harley's gun, death-dealing goats ! 

" Why Jo, what on earth is the matter with you? I 
am afraid the whisky has been too strong and powerful." 

" Oh, most lame and impotent conclusion," said Jo, as 
he grasped the tin tumbler of his pocket pistol in a 
moment of forgetfulness, and took a drink. u Look at 
the God of Day as he gloriously sinks to rest in yon mass 
of clouds, and then talk of whisky if you can." 

Truly, it was a sight once beheld never to be forgotten. 
Far below where we stood, a mass of light colored billowy 
shaped clouds were hurrying on down towards the sea- 
shore, in the valley between Hualalai and Mauna Loa, 
rolling and tossing, one upon the other, before the fresh 
land breeze, hiding the landscape below us, and requiring 
no stretch of the imagination to liken them to the waves 
of the ocean in a strong gale stands the glorious orb of 
day shining with all its brightest rays, was just dipping 
his burnished rim in the further edge of this cloud sea. 
We lingered and watched the enchanting scene, Jo and I, 
and wondered not that the poetry-loving Persians 
worshipped the sun. Soon, however, the cold wind from 
the snow-clad Mauna Loa began to come in keen and 
biting gusts, and we were glad to crawl back to our 
warm cave and the fire. We had broiled goat that night 
for supper, and it was truly delicious — better than any 
mutton I have ever tasted. It was cut into long stripes 
and twisted around sticks or twigs of brushwood, and 



64 LIFE ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 

roasted on the coals. One can eat an astonishing 
quantity cooked that way, and we did not suffer from the 
nightmare, either. 

The next day, after scrambling up several rugged 
peaks only to find that there was another apparently yet 
higher, and descending into deep extinct craters, in 
several of which we found water so cold that it gave me 
the toothache, we bade farewell to Hualalai, highly 
delighted with our trip and turned our horses' heads 
homewards. Each felt invigorated to a wonderful degree 
by our enjoyment of the rough country life and air. We 
had been twelve days on the trip and on weighing myself 
on my return home, found that I had gained twelve 
pounds, just a pound a day during my absence. 

If any one wishes to visit Hualalai, July is the time as 
the strawberries are then in season. 



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